The Council has agreed to add the bottom half of Falkous terrace to their work which is currently going on in Witton Gilbert to resurface pavements. The path has broken up badly and doing this at the same time as the work for Front St and Sacriston Lane is going to make it so much cheaper than asking at a later date – always worth asking and I’m happy that this time  my request has paid off.

For everyone who attended the “consultation” at Abbey Sport Centre on the County Durham Plan, I can confirm that my pressure for a more coherent event is now coming to fruition. Read the rest of this entry.

COUNTY COUNCIL PRESS RELEASE:

The County Council is offering small grants for Arts groups of up to £500. If you are interested in getting a grant for your local group, there is an advice session on Sept 2nd (Thur) from 4.30pm to 7pm. Read the rest of this entry.

All food outlets in County Durham are now being rated by the Council. Each of the following links will take you to the lists for each village in our area where you can click and find more information about each school, pub, restaurant and takeaway etc. Read the rest of this entry.

The resurfacing of footpaths in Witton Gilbert has started and looks great, with part of Sacriston Lane, Tile Shed Cottages, Louisa Terrace and West Lea completed, I expect the work will continue this week with Front Street being done too.

This should make this part of the village look much better.

After some months of problems at the entrance to Smithfield with potholes being reported and repaired our perseverance has paid off. The council has today started work on a full professional patching job to fix these problems. They are also repairing the sunken gulleys  farther down Abbey Road outside Northumbrian Water headquarters which I reported. And it looks like they are doing an excellent job too.

I have been informed by the county council that the land next to Priory House off Smithfield in Pity Me (pic above) has been earmarked for sale by the County Council for office development.

Over the last  few years we have had continual problems with parking in this area, and despite a new travel plan for Priory House, parking issues continue with the Abbey Business Centre and the nearby car showrooms.

I am writing to all residents on Smithfield to let them know about this potential change and have already told the County Council that if any such sale goes ahead there must be over provision of parking within both this site and the existing Priory House site as the potential for further parking problems with a new development is just too high for residents to cope with and would be dangerous.

There is also the issue of the loss of a green space which must be considered with this sale, as people do use this area for walking their dogs and it helps to break up what is a well developed area as it is. It may be necessary to offer some alternative recreational facility by way of planning gain if the development was permitted.

If anyone has comments about this potential sale of land they can email andrew.rutter@durham.gov.uk or call him on 0191 383 3902. Please copy me in on any correspondance or simply email me directly.

The council is looking for relief neighbourhood wardens. If you are interested in this type of job visit:

http://nd.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/vacancy.nsf/c519e88a5c7ca2f98025759e005c4f32/7fa0426312504c258025777700277b37?OpenDocument

Salary scale £17,161 – £19,126 pa.

As councillors we receive updates on certain information in the county. The regular report on Alcohol Harm Reduction makes interesting reading. As a county we have a serious problem with alcohol related issues including health and anti-social behaviour to name just two.

This report gives some information about what is being done. alcohol-sdp-newsletter-2010.pdf

The recent crackdown in the Framwellgate Moor Division on outdoor drinking (aimed particularly at underage drinking) illustrated the seriousness of the problem with the police working with council wardens carrying out an exercise to try and tackle these problems, including specific attention to helping and educating young people and making sure parents were aware of the problems.

I am continuing to work with the police and council to push for more such action which has a very positive impact in reducing anti-social behaviour and helping reduce the knock on problems related to underage drinking.

I have been pushing for more test purchases, and the recent test purchases of alcohol came back with all local outlets selling alcohol passing the test which was good news.

The report shows that a lot is being done across the county to tackle these issues. Come along to the next Police and Communities Meeting on Sept 16th in Framwellgate Moor at the Community Centre on Front St if you are interested in local priorities (Including Pity Me and Brasside).

For Witton Gilbert the next meeting is at Fyndoune Community Centre on 15th Sept, time not set yet, and for Bearpark I will post the date when it is available.

Alternatively you can let me know what you feel needs prioritising and I will feed this through to the police.